


First Date

by LightsOut



Series: Welcome To The Family [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Normal High School, First Kiss, Fluff, Friendship, Getting Together, M/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-27
Updated: 2015-07-27
Packaged: 2018-04-11 14:36:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4439468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightsOut/pseuds/LightsOut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil's been quietly pining for a while but they were going to end up together eventually.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Date

It was two days before Valentine’s Day and Phil was looking at the one person he wanted to spend it with.

Unfortunately, Clint was not his boyfriend. Clint was actually laughing with Darcy and Skye about the amount of hearts which decorated the cafeteria. The decorating committee had doubled the amount of decorations compared to the previous year and they’d set up an anonymous delivery system for Valentine’s Day cards. Phil watched quietly from the corner of the table and ignored Natasha’s knowing looks. Natasha saw everything.

Nick stormed over with his usual scowl and dumped a pile of red and pink envelopes in front of Phil, “We had a delivery.”

“What?”

Nick rolled his eyes, “These arrived at our office.”

Phil worked for the school paper and their office was really more of a cupboard but, the only thing that came out of his mouth was, “Why?”

All of the conversation at their lunch table froze and Phil fought down a blush at being the centre of attention. Nick shook his head and sat next to Maria. Clint blurted, “You’re joking?”

Phil gently pushed the pile of cards away from himself, “Umm, I need to go to the library.”

He escaped and spent the rest of the hour hidden between the shelves of encyclopaedias. The cards were waiting in his locker at the end of the day and he silently bemoaned the fact that Nick knew the combination again. There wasn’t a lot but there was more than he’d expected. Phil blamed Nick for using the picture of him at his taekwondo class for the feature on school sports. Phil hadn’t even realised that there was anyone who still read the school paper until people other than his friends had started paying attention to him after that article. After a moment, Phil stuffed the cards into his backpack and he hurried out of the school. When he was alone in his room he piled them onto his bed.

They were mostly similar, store bought cards with silly rhymes and vague messages but there was one that was different. It simply said, ‘I like you.’

Phil had no idea who it was from. He was simply glad that it wasn’t a horrible shade of pink and there wasn’t any glitter. Instead it was dark blue – TARDIS blue – and the writing was spiky and bold. Phil put the rest of them inside his drawer but he put the simple blue card on top of his desk. He doubted that anything would happen but liked the thought of keeping it. He wrapped his arms around his pillow and fell asleep with a smile on his face.

During school the next day, Natasha kept looking at Phil expectantly which was confusing. Natasha didn’t speak much and when she did she had a tendency to be vague. Phil was used to interpreting the small changes in her expressions but he couldn’t pin down the reason for why she was watching him.

The day after that was Valentine’s Day and Phil was alarmed by the number of people smiling at him. Clint found him hiding in the library at lunchtime, “Who are you hiding from?”

Phil closed his copy of _Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy_ , “I’m not hiding.”

Clint chuckled, “Of course. How many cards did you get?”

Phil shrugged, “A few.”

“Oh? Any special ones?” Phil shook his head but started thinking about the dark blue card sitting on his desk. Clint grinned knowingly, “Liar. Who is it from? The cute girl who plays the cello?”

Phil sighed, “I don’t know who it’s from.”

Clint perked up, “A secret admirer?”

Phil chuckled, “I doubt it. How many cards did you get?”

“None that matter.”

Phil frowned, “Really? So, you like someone then?”

Clint ducked his gaze and laughed, “Umm… yeah. I sent them a card.”

Phil’s tried to ignore his heart sinking, “Oh? Well, I’m sure that they loved it.”

“I hope so. I doubt that they realised that it was from me.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t put my name on it.”

“Why not?”

Clint took a deep breath, “I don’t know if they like me.”

“What? Of course they will. You’re great, Clint.”

Clint’s cheeks were pink, “Thanks. I should go and find Steve. I’ll see you later.”

Phil watched Clint leave and sighed sadly once he was gone. Natasha sat down in the vacated seat and glared at Phil. After a couple of minutes Phil caved, “What? I honestly have no idea what you’re trying to tell me.”

Natasha shook her head and enunciated clearly, “You’re an idiot.”

Phil snorted, “Thanks.”

She shook her head and stood up slowly, “Who knows your favourite colour?”

Phil frowned as she disappeared and his mouth dropped slowly, “Oh…”

At the end of the school day Phil waited for Clint. Clint walked out of the doors with Natasha and Steve but Phil called out before Clint could climb into the car, “Hey, Clint.”

Clint looked up with a smile and jogged over, “Hey.”

Phil grinned, “My parents are out so I was wondering if you wanted to watch the Avengers?”

“Really? Yeah, that sounds great.” He turned and shouted, “I’m going to Phil’s.”

Natasha nodded and Steve replied, “Be back before curfew.”

Clint scoffed and mocked, “Yes mom.”

Steve shook his head and Clint climbed into Phil’s car. Step one had worked… now Phil just had to tell Clint how he really felt.

At Phil’s house, part way through _Avengers Assemble_ Clint took a large bite of pizza and said, “Nat is totally Black Widow.”

“Because of the red hair?”

“No, because of the whole quiet-but-deadly thing that she has going on.”

“Yeah.”

“You would be Agent Coulson.”

Phil chuckled, “I don’t get to be a superhero?”

“Naw, Coulson has that total secret agent could-kill-you-with-a-spoon vibe going for him.”

Phil laughed, “Thanks, I think. You would be Hawkeye.”

“It’s the muscled arms and the archery, isn’t it?”

Phil blushed, “Ha, yeah.”

Clint stretched, “He’s pretty cool, I guess.”

“Clint…”

“Yeah?”

“Um… do you want more pizza?”

“Sure.”

Phil turned his head and bit his lip. He was discovering that he was a bit of a coward and he didn’t like it. Even if Clint wasn’t really into him it wouldn’t ruin their friendship. Phil had been quietly crushing on Clint for months and Clint had managed to be friends with Darcy after he’d turned her down so it wasn’t any different really.

As Phil tried to psyche himself up, Clint watched him out of the corner of his eye. Phil was obviously struggling with something but, for once, he had no idea what was going on with his friend. He figured that Phil could’ve worked out that he’d been the one who’d sent him a Valentine but, he didn’t know why Phil wouldn’t have said something right away if that was the case.

Clint stood up, “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Phil watched Clint turn the corner out of the room and he pulled out the purple card from his coat pocket. He’d been carrying it for a week but he’d chickened out every time he’d seen Clint. Phil put the card next to the food on the table and tugged nervously at his collar.

Clint flopped down on the sofa a few moments later and bit back a wide smile when he saw the purple envelope. Phil’s eyes darted away when Clint glanced at him so he ignored Phil as he picked up the card and opened it. The purple card was simple with arrows on the front and Clint glanced at the message inside for a couple of seconds before he leaned in to press a brief kiss against Phil’s lips. He retreated back to his side of the sofa and Phil went from worried to happy within seconds.

Phil blushed and said, “Yeah?”

Clint nodded, “Absolutely.”

Phil smiled shyly at his new boyfriend who announced that they needed to celebrate with more pizza.


End file.
